The Commonwealth Games mascot on the Gold Coast. Australian publishers say they will not seek media accreditation unless video restrictions are lifted.
Photograph: Fotomedia

Commonwealth Games organisers have been urged to relax restrictions on coverage after Australia’s two biggest media companies said they would boycott the 2018 event on the Gold Coast.

News Corp Australia and Fairfax Media have also indicated their intention to boycott next year’s Winter Olympics in South Korea for the same reason – what they say are impossible restrictions on the use of video online.

Held in early April next year the Games are the largest sporting event to be held in Australia this decade and a major media event. TV, newspapers and digital media outlets will be clamouring to cover the more than 6,600 athletes and team officials from 70 Commonwealth nations and territories.

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But in 2014 the chief executive of Seven, Tim Worner, stitched up a tight media rights deal said to be worth between $30m and $50m. He secured the rights for free-to-air, subscription, online, radio, social media, mobile and HbbTV.

“We don’t just have television rights, we have all rights and by 2018 the way we consume those events is going to be completely revolutionised,” Worner said at the time.

The restrictions, designed to protect the TV rights bought by the Seven Network, mean publishers have to wait 30 minutes before broadcasting anything from a news conference.

The also have to limit digital news bulletins to a maximum of 60 seconds a day across no more than three bulletins a day, according to the rules laid down by the Commonwealth Games Federation.

News Corp told Guardian Australia the company would boycott the Games because the restrictions imposed by the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (Goldoc) were out-of-step with modern digital news reporting, particularly limiting the ability to use video in news reporting.

“In essence, our news service – with an audience of 16 million Australians a month – are unable to provide the level of coverage that a spectator in the stands with a smart phone would be able to do,” a spokeswoman for News Corp said.

Fairfax Media, publishers of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age have also criticised the access rules.

“We won’t be forced into providing journalism that’s anything less than ‘Independent. Always’ and we will not agree to the terms and rules currently required for accreditation of journalists at the Games.

“We welcome having productive discussions with the organisers to resolve these important matters.”

But their refusal to agree to the rules does not mean the mastheads won’t be covering the Games.

“We intend to cover the Games as comprehensively as ever and deliver high impact reporting across our print and digital platforms,” a News spokeswoman said. “We have an absolute obligation to our readers and audiences to do so. However we will be delivering this coverage from outside the traditional Games media framework.”

The News Media Coalition, who represent Fairfax and News Corp as well as other leading global news agencies including Reuters, AFP and Associated Press, called on stakeholders and rights owners of the Games to “recognise the genuine needs and value of established news media sector”.

The Guardian Media Group is also a member of the NMC, which said it would continue to work with organisations involved in the Games on the Gold Coast in April next year and beyond “to identify the needs of the news industry”.

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News Corp called for the restrictions to be undone and a more reasonable regime that allows news organisations to operate under the rules of Australian copyright law to apply.

In a strange twist, News Corp tabloid the Gold Coast Bulletin was named as an Official Supporter, newspaper and news site for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in October.

The executive chairman of News Corp Australasia Michael Miller said Queensland and the Gold Coast would be in the international spotlight during the Games.

“Not only are we committed to helping deliver a successful GC2018 Commonwealth Games, we also want to ensure a transformative legacy for the region well beyond 2018,” Miller said in October.